An investigation has revealed that a Bristol-based charity, which hit the headlines in 2016 when a dad lay dead for weeks in “squalid” conditions, has topped a list of the UK’s most-prosecuted landlords.

The investigation by the Guardian newspaper has pointed the finger at Alternative Housing, which the paper said receives thousands of pounds in housing benefit to provide accommodation for homeless people with addiction problems.

It names Ghulam Muhammad as the only remaining registered director and trustee of Alternative Housing and the joint most convicted landlord.

The national publication compiled a list of the UK’s worst landlords after making Freedom of Information requests to councils in England and Wales.

This found Alternative Housing was convicted of housing offences six times over the past two years.

It was reported how environmental health officers called to the “squalid” house of bedsits at 14 Franklyn Street, St Paul’s, did not realise Mr Rias had been dead for weeks inside, because the stink from the broken sink and blocked sewage pipe masked the smell.

The blocked drain with overflowing sewage found at 14 Franklyn Street

Mr Muhammad then spoke to thePost to defend his actions, accusing Bristol City Council of a witch hunt and blaming the tenants and the owner of the house for the state it was in.

Alternative Housing was found guilty in 2016 of six separate breaches of the HIMO regulations, and was fined £2,000 for each breach. They were also ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge, as well as the council’s full costs of £4,760, making a total of £16,880.

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In 2016, shocked magistrates heard that council officials visited the property at Franklyn Street several times as they were mounting a prosecution against the housing charity that managed it for its poor condition, but could not gain access to two of the locked bedrooms inside.

During the first three visits, they found the cooker had been disconnected, the gas meter had run out, leaving the residents with no heating or hot water, and the waste pipe beneath the sink had broken and had been replaced by a bucket which was full of stinking, waste water. In January, the environmental health officers found a worse smell upstairs and believed the upstairs toilet to be blocked. The officers put drain dye down the toilet to see if it was blocked, they told the court.

Inspectors found a stinking bucket under a sink being used to catch waste water

The Guardian reports how Alternative Housing was prosecuted three times in 2015 after a raid on a number of bedsits. The paper reports sewage was found to be overflowing in the backyard of a small terraced house converted into four bedrooms, where an electricity meter had also been hotwired.

Bristol council’s housing cabinet member, Paul Smith, said at the time: “These fines reflect the poor conditions that were found in the properties.

“The problems were not addressed, leaving vulnerable tenants in substandard accommodation without the assurance of a working fire detection system, safe electrical supplies and with general disrepair.

“This agent was supposed to be providing suitable accommodation, support and care to some of the most vulnerable people in the city. They have shown that they have a complete disregard for the wellbeing of their tenants. Landlords often employ agents to carry out the management of their properties on their behalf and need the reassurance that these agents are operating within the requirements of the law.

“Charitable status is no protection from providing residents with decent accommodation, the council will be even handed in ensuring that people live within housing which meets the legal standards.”

The Guardian reports Mr Smith as describing Alternative Housing as a “bogus charity” which had done “appalling things” to vulnerable people.

He told the Guardian: “There is nothing charitable about what they were doing. They were using charitable status as a cover for commercial activity.

“In Bristol a large percentage of the private rented sector is looking for young professionals. Those landlords that do take people on benefits have a huge captive market. What we might have once called slum landlords are able to come in and mop people up on benefits because there is not enough affordable homes.”

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The Guardian reports how Mr Muhammad was not contactable at the address filed with the Charity Commission.

The paper’s investigation reported that Alternative Housing’s office in Bristol appeared to have closed and last week a judge at Bristol Crown Court dismissed an appeal by the charity, upholding six offences relating to the house in St Paul's after the charity failed to attend the hearing.

The Guardian claims to have visited a residential address where Mr Muhammad registered the charity and found a family that know nothing of him. The paper reports his charity still receives housing benefit to the tune of close to £2,000 a month.

It reports that the Charity Commission opened a compliance case against Alternative Housing last year.

The Commission would not comment further on the case but the Guardian quoted a spokesman as saying: “The commission takes very seriously its duty to maintain public trust and confidence in charities and takes robust action against those who abuse charitable status or who fail to comply with their legal duties.”

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The Guardian investigation reported how 61 landlords who are still operating freely have been convicted of multiple housing offences over the past two years.

Three quarters of UK councils responded to the Guardian’s Freedom of Information Request, the paper said. It said the data showed that 651 landlords were convicted of housing offences between January 2015 and December 2016 and were fined a total of £3m – an average of about £4,600 per conviction.

The Post reported in 2016 that Alternative Housing was effectively two men, Mr Muhammad and fellow director Mohammed Ahmed, and their business was a registered charity, with the stated aims to provide: “The relief of those in need, by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial or other disadvantage in Bristol, in particular but not exclusively by provision of accommodation and support and care to such persons as the trustees shall determine.”